How to discover independent blogs

Finding a good blog is often harder than following one. Start with a subject you want to understand, then look for people who write from experience. A small collection of useful sources is a better starting point than a long subscription list you never open.

Start with a specific question

Instead of searching for “technology blogs”, try a question such as “how I moved my personal site to a static generator”. First-person accounts can reveal the decisions, mistakes and trade-offs that broad introductory articles leave out. Check the author, publication date and examples before adding a source.

Follow the links writers recommend

Look for a blogroll, a links page or references within a post you enjoyed. These can lead to smaller publications that cover the same subject from another perspective. Read a few posts before deciding whether you want to follow the whole site or only one category.

Choose between following sites and following topics

An RSS reader is useful when you already know which writers you want to follow. Elseweb is designed for discovering articles across listed sites by topic. Choose your interests, read the matching articles and open the original page when something catches your attention. Its catalogue grows through reviewed reader suggestions and owner submissions, so it does not cover the whole web.

Keep the collection manageable

Start with a few interests or feeds. Remove sources you repeatedly skip and keep the ones that give you useful ideas. You do not need to read everything: a reading list should help you find worthwhile writing, not become another inbox to clear.

Choose your interests in Elseweb, or learn how to read topic matches with RSS.